The Tributes (Sable)

Facing the Black Queen

"So," she heard the Empress say, after a full minute or so of ominous silence, "this is the tribute."

The bored skepticism in her tone was so blatant that Sable felt another hysterical laugh bubble up inside her. 'Wow,' thought Sable, keeping the wild chortle down. Here she was, terrified for her life and wondering how much longer she would survive ... and the Queen had just dismissed her as uninteresting in under a minute of seeing her.

Sable, of course, gave no outward response to that remark, still trying to figure out what – if anything – she should do next. She could feel the Queen's gaze burning through her though. And her intuition haplessly told her that the Queen's contempt for her was only growing with what she saw.

"What is your name?" the Queen demanded after a moment, done with her examination and probably realizing that she wouldn't speak of her own accord.

"Sa–" Sable had to swallow to wet her dry throat. "S-S-Sable Z-Zao ..." she stuttered helplessly, inwardly wincing at how obvious her terror was.

"Oh, I'm afraid you're going to have to repeat that," the Queen drawled, "And perhaps you might speak at a volume that is meant for human ears. Or do gutter-girls such as yourself only speak with the same grunts as animals?"

The entire court tittered at the insult. Sable just swallowed a couple of times to make speaking easier, and then tried to put some more force behind her voice.

"...S-Sable Zao..." she repeated to the Queen, speaking just as the mocking laughter of the court died down. She could only silently hope that her voice had come out audible this time, for she could tell that it was still pretty weak.

"Look at me, you wretched girl! My face is not on the floor!" the Queen suddenly snapped.

And Sable's head shot up automatically at the command, her heart pounding in her ears.

Distantly though, she noted that she wasn't the only one who'd reacted to her order: The amused air of the court had abruptly vanished, and she had a strong feeling that every courtier in the large room was trying not to breathe.

However, once her gaze settled on the Queen's face, she slowly started to calm down a little. For, although her first impulse had been to duck back down the moment she'd caught sight of the Empress's face, she abruptly recalled that being able to see that face was exactly what she wanted.

So she kept her head and her gaze up, overcoming the reflex reaction to look away ...

And... Sable was surprised to realize that she didn't find the Queen as breathtakingly beautiful as people often described her to be.

Sure, her features were pleasant and even: A raspberry-painted mouth above a slightly rounded chin and below a small nose. Light brown hair that was a perfectly common shade in their kingdom, except that it was styled in a complicated arrangement of braids and done up. And skin that looked smooth, but with a rather pale complexion. The rest of her was all just expensive lace and velvet and glittering jewelry – with a gem-encrusted crown sitting atop her head like the main centerpiece in a room.

But, while the Queen was certainly pretty to look at, she was hardly as devastatingly alluring in appearance as people always said she was. If anything, the only thing Sable found even a little striking about her were her eyes: Dark eyes with flecks of grey in them – made even more prominent by the delicate, dark eye-makeup she was wearing – and framed by sharp, thin eyebrows that were a darker shade than her hair.

As Sable watched her though, she wondered whether maybe those eyes were all she needed. For the expression in them was powerful and hard, and that look alone was probably capable of holding anyone's gaze and mentally cowing them on instinct.

Then, as she watched the Queen's visage, Sable's own brand of observation skills came into play:

The Queen's eyes, at first, had looked at her in bored contempt. But Sable could see that look slowly morph into slight surprise over a long moment. She had no idea what caused that change, but she sincerely hoped that it boded better for her than the boredom.

Then the expression on the Queen's face changed again – this time to a calculating one – and her eyes took Sable in like she was assessing her worth.

* * *

AN: There was always something I had wondered: what if a protagonist and antagonist had the same kind of ability, but the antagonist was just better at it?

We have had stories where a lot of the heroes and villains have similar backgrounds or origin stories, sure. But unless it's a widely available ability (like being wizards or shapeshifters) the protagonist and antagonist are not really given the same kind of power. And I wondered one step further than that to: What if the antagonist is leagues better than the protagonist at this skill?

Another thing I wondered was how competent and able most protagonists are from the get-go. And don't get me wrong, I love such protagonists. Aang from Avatar The Last Airbender is one of my absolute favorite characters -- and he was an insanely powerful air bender from the beginning. But, I've also read a lot of stories where, without an ounce of training or prep or experience, the protagonists simply knew what to do.

And again, if this was subtly hinted at -- like a protagonist who loves cooking being good at making medicinal or magical potions, or a protagonist who has taught herself to hunt over the years being good at archery -- then it's all fine and interesting. 

But someone with no background in any kind of fighting taking down a group of professional assassins in close combat? Sure, it might work once if the assassins really, really underestimated the character. But otherwise? Meh.

Anyway, I wondered what it would be like to have a protagonist or main character whose bar for any abilities was more or less on the floor...And cue Sable. (*Evil author smile*)

Everyone in the kingdom: The Black Queen is evil and unnatural, but an incredible beauty!

Sable: Eh, she looks okay.